SACRAMENTO – In any other year, a $60 million opposition campaign fueled by a deep-pockets industry would almost certainly spell doom for a California ballot initiative.

But the infusion of $40 million by a Hollywood producer has given environmentalists pushing Proposition 87, an oil-production tax, plenty of financial firepower against the petroleum companies that oppose it.

The battle over the $4 billion tax has become the costliest initiative campaign in California history, with a combined $104.4 million raised so far on both sides.

That surpasses the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying in last year’s special election on two prescription drug measures and a $93 million contest in 1998 by Indian tribes to legalize tribal gambling.

Proposition 87 would tax companies drilling for oil in California and set aside the money for loans, grants and subsidies to promote alternative fuels and more energy-efficient vehicles.

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